Gifts

She had been grounded from going outside to play today. So I offered to color with her, which is one of her favorite things… that should happen way more than it does…

She said she had a plan. Some time ago she had watched someone draw a flower with many pedals and layers and detail. She showed me step by step how to draw that flower. We shared a pencil and took turns drawing each layer. Then we colored our flowers. She dug through all the crayons offering ones she knew I would like.

Her plan was to give her picture to her teacher. Then we started cutting out hearts, from which one would go to the little girl whose feelings she may have hurt earlier that day. I taped a few leftover hearts around the picture of us hanging on the wall.

She became sad when she didn’t have a heart or flower for me.

So I let her know, that she gave me a gift. She looked at me puzzled. I couldn’t hold it in my hands or hang it on the wall. I let her know that she taught me something, and I won’t lose it, it can’t get ruined or thrown away. I’ll have that forever.

The moments we share with people, the moments when we connect with love or laughter, intelligence, kindness, music and dancing, art. These are the gifts.